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In a random off-ice scene at the Maple Leafs rookie tournament in London, Ont., Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville was approached on the street by a lanky, long-haired young man who effusively congratulated him on winning the Stanley Cup.

So why the public goodwill for the coach of a rival organization, especially when Sparks, though he grew up in the Chicago area, always considered himself a supporter of the Dallas Stars? Let’s just say Sparks, a Maple Leafs goaltending prospect, is possessed of a delightful effusiveness he appears to find difficult to repress. While most NHL hopefuls march through their pre-season rituals with narrow gazes and straight-faced countenances, sometimes Sparks can’t hold himself back from expressing the thrill of being a part of it all.

Sparks, who signed a three-year entry-level deal with the Leafs this past spring, is among the crop of goaltenders vying to line up behind Jonathan Bernier and James Reimer on the organizational depth chart. And if you can accuse him of getting occasionally overexcited, he’s an underdog at heart. The Leafs picked him in the seventh and final round of the 2011 NHL draft. He was an eighth-round selection in junior, where last season he set Guelph Storm franchise records for regular-season shutouts (seven) and victories (36).

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Sparks, who has so far performed well, is under no illusion that he’s anywhere close to NHL-ready. But he said he’s fully committed to chasing “the dream.”

“There’s a lot of unknowns, but there’s a lot of opportunity out there,” Sparks said. “I’m just looking to go into it open-minded and absorb what I can, and show what I can do, and see where that takes me.”

Whether he eventually turns into an NHL puckstopper is anyone’s guess. A year ago, the Leafs were auditioning the likes of Jussi Rynnas and Mark Owuya in their minor-league system. Both of those goalies, and the hopeful talk that once surrounded them, have since departed. The carousel takes on new passengers all the time.

“Obviously things didn’t go as well as we would have liked or either one of (Rynnas or Owuya) would have liked,” said Dave Morrison, the Leafs’ director of amateur scouting. “We’ve moved on, and now we’ve got some young guys who we’re excited about.”

Morrison is referring to the likes of Sparks and Christopher Gibson, also 20, both of whom are expected to battle it out for the privilege of joining the AHL Marlies as backup to projected starter Drew MacIntyre, a 30-year-old veteran. Further down the chart lies Antoine Bibeau, a 19-year-old prospect from Victoriaville, Que., of whom Morrison says: “He’s another kid who, like Garret, we think has got potential. We’re going to see where it goes.”

In the tricky business of grooming goaltenders, every prospect’s a dice roll.

“It’s such a different position in terms of development,” Morrison said. “Sometimes goalies develop a lot later, but there’s only so much time you have with them and at some point you have to make decisions, and they have to make decisions on their careers. At some point you part ways.”

If you follow Sparks on Twitter, you’ll know that he’s a man of opinions on no end of ephemera. “Blurred Lines,” the hit song by Robin Thicke, is “ruining society,” by his estimation. The Buffalo Sabres’ newly released third jersey makes the Sabres’ much-mocked “Buffaslug” logo look “like a Picasso.” Young men who expressed disappointment with the recent engagement of Paulina Gretzky were delusional: “You never had a shot with her & you can still follow her on Instagram,” Sparks tweeted. “Your relationship hasn’t changed.”

Sparks, the son of an architect father and stay-at-home mother in Elmhurst, Ill., said he’s fully aware that his social-media output, tame by most standards, might be construed as risque in hockey’s conservative culture.

“If they ask me to tone my personality down a bit, obviously I will,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’re all people. And we all have opinions. I like to keep mine pretty clean. But if there’s something I don’t agree with, I’m not afraid to state it. There’s no reason to hold back what you think.”

Scott Walker, who coached Sparks in Guelph, said Sparks’ varied interests should be considered an asset.

“He’s a good goalie and he likes doing it, but he’s not going to be at the gym for eight hours a day, going down and taking 400 shots. He’s just good at goal and he loves doing the other things in life.

“I find that those are the ones that last,” Walker said. “If you’re uptight as a goalie, you end up having tough nights and tough months, you don’t last very long. The guys who are easygoing — Cam Ward was like that — if you have a bad game, it doesn’t bother you.”

Morrison, for his part, said the Leafs are of the belief that Sparks, along with a six-foot-two frame and considerable skill, has the “right mentality” to succeed as a pro.

“How far he can get? That remains to be seen. But he certainly has the talent and the right demeanour,” Morrison said. “I (might) have a problem with the things he does through Twitter if he had a distorted view of who he is and what he is. But he doesn’t have that. He understands fully where he is in his development. He knows he’s still got a ways to go and a lot of work to do.”

Some call it work. Sparks, still harbouring an inner fan alongside his outer critic, considers it a calling of sorts.

“I couldn’t go a day without (hockey),” Sparks said. “I don’t always have to be on the ice. I don’t always have to be playing with my friends. But at the end of the day, I can be on a lake in the summertime and all I think about is hockey. It’s not even a love-hate relationship. It’s just constantly there. Things go wrong in life and you’re not always the happiest. But at the end of the day you get a fresh sheet of ice and nothing can bring you down.”

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